Psycho-Pass The Movie: Broken English Simulator

With Psycho-Pass being one of my favorite shows I was extremely excited to find out that it would be getting a second season and a movie. Finally a continuation to such a great story. At least, that was my initial thought. Boy was I wrong. Psycho-Pass 2 was an incredible disappointment to me. The only thing keeping me watching was the nostalgia factor. And as I watched, it finally dawned on me why I hated it so much; the lack of contribution from Gen Urobuchi, the creator of this series. Even with the great disappointment that is Psycho-Pass 2, I waited patiently to see what kind of retribution we would get with the return of Gen Urobuchi for the movie. Hoping he can be the savior of a once great series.

To those who don’t know what Psycho-Pass is, this review may not be for you. I do highly recommend the show and would love for you to watch it and come back. We will be waiting right here for you.

Welcome back! What did you think? I know right?! Okay, back to the matter at hand. The movie takes place not too long after season 2. There are terrorist who have snuck into Japan. Their motives, unknown. After they have been stopped by the Public Safety Bureau, we learn that there is a possibility they are being led by our main protagonist from season 1, Shinya Kougami. After learning this, Akane Tsunemori takes on the task of going to another country, which is dealing with its own internal conflict, to bring him back to Japan. Akane will do whatever it takes to bring him to justice if he is behind this or to clear his name.

Another reason why Psycho-Pass 2 was bad was the lack of Kougami. The ongoing battle between Kougami and the main villain of season 1, Shougo Makishima, is what made the show so great. It was an intense game of cat and mouse between two characters who thought very similarly but were on different sides of the spectrum. It seems that with this movie they made an attempt to follow this same approach with Akane and Kougami. Throughout the movie they continuously compare Kougami to Makishima. This also leading Akane to be more like Kougami. This was interesting initially but this was not a core point of the story and didn’t last long at all.

The story has definitely returned to its roots but at the same time alienates its viewers in different ways. The main thing about this show is you are getting outside perspective of Sibyl System and how it works with the world. It doesn’t. It is only in Japan essentially but other countries are learning how efficient it is especially in countries who have lost control of their own population. If you really liked the dominators in the show,  you don’t see much of that. If you liked all the futuristic environments and equipment, you also don’t see much of that.

The next point I want to make is the use of English in this movie. Initially it was great. I like the idea of using it to show that they are in another country and not limited to Japan. What I did not like was how lazy it became. If you are watching the sub for this movie you will notice the movie is about 35-40% in English. Maybe a high number but I don’t think it’s wrong. They would use their watches to translate the English to Japanese in the beginning of the movie. After 20 minutes they just threw away the idea and people would just switch from Japanese to English with no explanation. It really got to me after a while. If you can’t deal with broken English this movie may not be for you.

The movie does showcase some of the best fight scenes I have seen in anime. When I say this I am referring to actual fighting. Not ridiculous over the top fights, Dragon ball Z for example. This is to be expected with an anime studio such as Production I.G. They have worked on a ton of beautifully animated series such as Ghost in the Shell, Haikyuu and Joker Game. For your action fix, this is something I would highly recommend. They are also one of the only anime studios that deal with CGI that I am okay with. If you did not know this prior, I cannot stand CGI. Keep it away from me!

As a fan of the original series, this movie did not fail me. It exceeding my expectations, mostly because Psycho-Pass 2 shit on my initial expectations. I  do recommend buying this series. Having a Blu-ray copy is definitely worth. Also if you are a dub only anime watcher, this will help you get away from the silly broken English that takes up a huge portion of the movie.

As always let us know what you think by adding a comment down below and leaving a like. Also check out our weekly podcast and daily blog post.